The machines typically provide total counts of seeds or batch sizes for packaging.

In order to assure the correct quantity of seeds, the distributors added a safety margin to the packed weight, like a bakers' dozen.

The electronic counter operation involved the a vibrating the seeds so that they move to the edge of the counting machine.

[1] The machine will pay for itself over the labor intensive tedious task of manually counting seeds, which is necessarily characterized by human error.

By contrast, the new devices, even in the early 1960s, boasted increased speed and “about 1 error in counting 10,000 seeds counted.” The accuracy helps lessen the need to build in safety margins for quantity; and the costs of the machinery can be more than paid for by reduced labor costs.

[5] If the items are put onto the conveyor in a single file, then a simple counting mechanism may provide satisfactory results.

For example, one commercial counter is capable of measuring the hundredth/thousandth grain weight for seeds, tablets, pearls, and small components.

Automatic discharge can obviate demands for the operator to constantly feed the vibrating plate.